Introduced by Bejan in 1996, the constructal law asserts that a finite-size flow system must evolve into configurations that provide easier access to the currents that flow through it in order to persist in time. This paper synthesizes the application of this principle to biosystems across multiple levels of biological organization, unifying evidence from physiology, animal locomotion, plant biology, microbiology, cellular biology, neurobiology, and social biology within a common framework. Tree-shaped vascular and bronchial networks; Kleiber's 3/4 power law of metabolism; the 1/4 power laws of breathing and heartbeat; the unified mass scaling of running, swimming, and flying; the architecture of root-trunk-canopy systems; the morphology of bacterial colonies and stony corals; the optimal microvasculature of the brain; the stepwise growth of cell clusters; the geometry of social-insect nests; and the design of athletic performance can be placed within a single physical framework. Several of these are derived as theorems of that law, while others are better described as interpretations or analogical extensions of it. Rather than competing with natural selection or the laws of thermodynamics, the constructal law completes them by placing design and evolution within physics as a first principle. The framework offers a deterministic, falsifiable platform for predicting biological architecture and for engineering biomedical flow systems such as vascularized tissue scaffolds and chemotherapeutic protocols.

To clarify the place of time direction of change in nature (time arrow), the present article shows why Evolution and Irreversibility are two distinct phenomena. Their distinct laws of nature are the Constructal Law and the Second Law, respectively. The demonstration is based on the simplest setting imaginable: a solid body moving in a pool of water. The view is holistic: the system selected for analysis is the body and the pool, not the body alone, and the phenomenon is the evolution of the image (configuration) of the whole. New is also the answer to the question of what flows in this evolving flow configuration. Along the way, important terms are defined: phenomenon, law, irreversibility, nature, design, freedom, theory versus empiricism, information, knowledge, selection, purpose, engine, refrigeration, and wheel. More complex natural settings for the demonstration are in the second part of the article: engines, refrigeration, heating and cooling, the wheel, and a pushed boat sliding on water.

Economies around the world are greatly affected by global transport. The movement of freight between starting and end points can occur in numerous different ways that each have their own unique positive and negative aspects. While studies on transportation need to involve optimization, this alone is insufficient due to how any specific optimization only applies to an optimal value for a specific time period. Transportation models have dynamic structures that necessitate having decision makers also consider how time factors into their policies. Constructal law is a method that can allow models for international transportation to be simplified by applying the results of Constructal law regarding the configuration of river deltas to the question of how best to set up a few large and many small transport modes for a given route, which in air transport can be referred to as the hub and spokes model. This article investigates a transport model based on having a small number of large and many small modes of transport and uses yearly data.

Great importance is had in understanding the current situation of maritime transport and making predictions about its future. Maritime transport is an essential part of transportation, and correctly predicting installed main engine power has great significance in maritime transport with regard to fuel consumption and the generation of emissions. Nonlinear regression is a method with great potential in making predictions, as it allows for more realistic models to be developed using multiple variables. Vessels' dimensions of carrying capacity, gross tonnage, length, and breadth significantly impact the required main engine power. This article will calculate and estimate the installed main engine power for bulk carriers through nonlinear regression using data for the as yet highest number of bulk carriers (n = 9,174 ships) and compare the results with the studies in the literature. The developed model has an accuracy of 93.2% for six different bulk carrier types (Small, Handysize, Handymax, Panamax, Capesize, and Large Capesize). In addition, the study calculates the emissions these ships produce (NOx, SO2, CO2, HC, PM), estimating and demonstrating a nonlinear linear regression model for these ships' emission amounts. The performed analyses have found the main engine power required per unit of load to decrease as ship size increases. However, these analyses also show the emissions generated per unit of load to decrease as size increases, with Large Capesize vessels being found to have the lowest fuel consumption and emission generation per unit of load.

The new direction traced in this article is to vary freely and simultaneously the fin and flow channel aspect ratios in the search for the complete high-density heat transfer flow architecture. We show that when the combined solid and fluid volume is specified, and the fluid flow rate is known, it is possible to anticipate from theory the complete design (all the aspect ratios) of the flow configuration. The power to predict covers the overall heat transfer rate and the required pumping power. The configuration and performance owe their existence to the multiple degrees of freedom identified in the design, and exploited in the theory.

The electromagnetic wave absorption capabilities of an absorber depend on its dielectric and magnetic components, which determine its interfacial polarization, conductivity loss, magnetic loss, and other such mechanisms. In this study, a comprehensive review of the electromagnetic wave and material interaction was conducted. Moreover, for a better understanding of the trends and evolutionary developments in the study of the electromagnetic wave absorber, 23300 documents dated between 1990 and 2020 were examined, which were obtained from Scopus using the keywords of “electromagnetic wave absorption” and “microwave absorption”. The data search in Scopus was conducted using the related keywords in the search bar for titles and abstracts. These results demonstrate that the majority of research regarding electromagnetic wave absorbers was conducted in China, which was followed by the United States. The number of published documents regarding the electromagnetic wave absorption field significantly increased between 1990 and 2020; these documents were mostly published as journal articles. With respect to the journal activity, the most productive journal was the “Journal of Alloys and Compounds”, with a total of 592 articles. In addition, graphene and titanium dioxide were determined to be the materials that were most studied in the field of electromagnetic wave absorption.

Thermodynamics is a universal science. The language of thermodynamics is energy and its derivatives such as entropy and power. The physical theory of thermodynamics reigns across a full spectrum of non-living objects as well as living beings. In the traditions of the past, the dichotomy between matter and life resulted in the natural sciences studying matter while the social sciences focused on living beings. As the state of human knowledge continues to evolve, anticipating the sciences of matter (natural science) and of life (social science) becoming unified under a single overarching theory is not unnatural. This article is part of the theme issue 'Thermodynamics 2.0: Bridging the natural and social sciences (Part 1)'.

This article addresses two questions, why certain animals (frogs, breaststroke swimmers, hovering fliers, jellyfish) push rapidly against the surrounding fluid and then reach forward slowly, and whether this rhythm of propulsion is a manifestation of the universal phenomenon of design evolution in nature. Emphasis is on the distribution of time periods of locomotion in which, during the driving phase of cyclic movement (the motive stroke, phases 1 and 2, in alternating sequence with the dissipative stroke, phase 3), the work is generated (phase 1) and dissipated (phase 2). The relative lengths of the characteristic times t 1 and t 2 of the phases 1 and 2, are predicted. The relative duration of the proposed three phases of a cycle is the ‘rhythm’. The analysis is based on a model of how the effective cross-sections of the stroking body parts impact the surrounding medium, water, or air, and the total power required to account for the kinetic energy losses during phases 2 and 3, which are due to drag forces posed by the surrounding medium. The body configuration (limbs' cross-sections) determines the limbs' velocities that maximize mean power, and the times t 1 and t 2 within the motive stroke. Emphasis is placed on the freedom to change the evolving design. Freedom is represented in two ways: the number of degrees of freedom in changing the dimensions of the model and its deformation in time, and the effect that evolutionary changes have on the access that the body has to its available space. Freedom to change the locomotion design leads to greater power and speed.

The purpose-oriented design and planning of ships is maintained throughout production. Outer form of ship equipment starts with the steel construction process. The outer body production process moves ahead with painting, quality control tests, and bureaucratic procedures. In accordance with all these form and block operations, choosing a main engine suitable for all other technical parameters is vital, especially regarding ship speed and the amount of cargo it will carry. As a result, estimating main engine power is attempted with the help of artificial neural network (ANN) and regression analyses by considering a ship’s technical parameters (e.g., draught, depth, deadweight tonnage [DWT], gross tonnage [GT], and engine power). This study conducts regression and ANN analyses over 836 tanker ships from the Marine Traffic database to predict main engine power using input parameters (deadweight (DWT), Length (L), Breadth (B), and gross ton (GT) values). The regression analyses show Model 7 to perform the best approximation with a determination value = 0.827 usable for estimating main engine power. After all the examinations, a very accomplished result of 0.98047 was additionally obtained from the ANN analysis. The study makes beneficial and innovative contributions to predicting tankers’ required main engine power.

Environmental pollution caused by industrialization and urbanization has received significant attention from researchers in recent decades. Among them, a major focus has been on the treatment of water effluents from various sources, such as municipal, industrial, and agricultural wastewater. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) and their importance in wastewater treatment. The first section demonstrates the bibliometrics approach to understanding the global popularity of AOP in research. Then, recent research on the applications of various popular types of AOPs is also presented. Finally, a conclusion is drawn on the current state of all current AOP techniques in the current research and application scenario. Therefore, hybridization of developed and emerging AOPs can be considered to manage a broader range of pollutants. In addition, incorporating solar and other renewable energy sources into treatment hybridization will be a step towards improving the economy and energy efficiency. However, most novel AOP systems are still in the laboratory, and more effort is required to bring these emerging technologies to an industrial scale.

Yapısal Gelişim Teorisi 1996 yılında literatüre kazandırılmış olup tabiattaki ve mühendislikteki tasarım prensiplerini açıklar. Teori, yeryüzündeki akış sistemlerini bütüncül bir şekilde ele alır. Akışın (hareketin) olmadığı yerde çoğu zaman canlılıktan bahsetmemiz dahi mümkün olmamaktadır. Akış sistemlerinin çözümünde anahtar davranış biçimi bu sistemlerin minimum dirençli yol ile hareketini sürdürmesidir. Belli bir zaman dilimi için minimum direnç ile hareket eden sistem zaman geçtikçe kendine yeni yollar (kanallar) bulmakta ya da bazı yolları hiç kullanmayarak yönünü değiştirmektedir. Yapısal Gelişim Teorisi ise hayati öneme sahip olan akış sistemlerinin fiziksel arka planını ortaya koymaktadır. Bu makalede özellikle mühendislik çözümlerinin başında gelen akış sistemlerinin yapısı (gemilerde kurulu ana makine gücü ve ısı transferi örnekleri özelinde) ve Yapısal Gelişim Teorisi’ne göre ilişkisi araştırılmıştır. Bunun için 1085 adet petrol tankeri için DWT ile bu tankerler için gerekli olan güç ilişkisi nonlineer regresyon ile analiz edilmiştir. Sonuç olarak gemilerdeki genel gelişimin ve ısı transferinin yapısal gelişim prensiplerine uygun şekilde gerçekleştiği gösterilmiştir.

Energy has had a definitive impact on human life throughout history. Beginning with the harnessing of fire, which offered warmth, improved shelter and more food, humanity's standard of living has been defined by the power derived from fuels and food. Access to energy is the briefest way in which to summarize the history of the world. Direct and indirect causes of war have involved access to energy, and the results of conflicts have been determined by who controlled the energy resources. Therefore, the scientific literature reveals very close interactions between energy studies and social science studies. The Scopus database contains about 118 000 publications in the fields of social sciences and energy. The current study aims to exploit this resource to identify the interactions that exist between the fields so that future research can investigate these more deeply and thus develop solutions to the problems of the modern world. The present article will analyse these publications systematically according to author, country, institution and year, in addition to examining the changes in keywords that have occurred in these studies over the years.This article is part of the theme issue 'Thermodynamics 2.0: Bridging the natural and social sciences (Part 1)'.

This study investigates the contribution from researchers around the world in the field of steam turbines during the period 2000-2020. A bibliometric approach has been applied to illustrate the scientific publications on steam turbines and related topics using the Scopus database, which has 11,751 publications published by 652 authors from more than 500 organizations scattered over 101 countries. Various aspects of the studies have been analyzed such as publication type, fundamental research areas, journals, citations, authorship patterns, affiliations, and most used keywords. In addition, the impact factor, h-index, and Paper İmpact Parameter (PIP) for the number of total citations have been used to reveal the power of countries, institutes, authors, and journals in the field of steam turbines. The results show that the most productive journal or proceedings, author, and country according to PIP are Energy, Ibrahim Dincer, and Singapore, respectively. The results also indicate turbomachinery to cover more papers than other core research areas and engineering subjects to also have the highest ratio.

Educational technology (EdTech) possesses comprehensive content and an accumulation of topics requiring extensive analyses for monitoring its development over time. Conducting comprehensive analyses facilitates acquiring a plural perspective instead of subjective experiences, and facilitates focusing on the places where deficiencies occur in the field. This research aims to determine general EdTech research trends and to monitor its developments over time and investigates EdTech research from aspects such as year, publication type, country, journal, institution, author, scientific field, keywords, inter-country relationships, citations, and interactions using the bibliometric method. The study analyzes 135,835 EdTech publications published between 1950-2021 in 156 journals located in the EdTech Journals 2021 list and Scopus database and presents the findings under four headings: numerical development of EdTech research by year, content changes, relationships among the research, and research impact. The number of publications on EdTech research increased post-2000, with most being performed in the fields of social sciences and computer sciences, a large portion are composed of articles, and USA is prominent in the country rankings and coauthor analyses. When examining the common word analyses, the topics of interactive learning environments, learning-teaching strategies, pedagogical issues, virtual reality, and distance learning are prominent. The most-cited journals in EdTech research are Computers and Human Behavior, Computers and Education, and Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. This study evaluates EdTech research’s numerical, contextual, and impact trends and is thought to contribute to the framework formed for future EdTech research.

This article reveals the thermodynamics of human sustainability on earth: (i) Production of power increases and, necessarily, the consumption of source energy increases (fuel, food, area covered by solar panels and windmills). Greater efficiency and energy conservation do not translate into less fuel consumption. (ii) Consequently, the world population will continue to increase monotonically. (iii) The power generated, consumed, and dissipated by the world population will continue to increase because every individual and group makes decisions in the direction of achieving greater wealth. The scatter in the data (the diversity) is because more advanced societies facilitate greater human movement per unit of fuel consumed. The way forward consists of making consistent steps on several paths: (a) Greater efficiency, (b) Cleaner power generation, (c) More economical distribution of power on the globe, and (d) Greater flow connectivity (empowering) of the pockets of populations that, unlike advanced societies, do not benefit from greater movement (access) per unit of fuel consumed. Any idea that moves a population toward greater movement (access) counts: increasing power plant efficiency, power & refrigeration, transportation evolution, energy in buildings, climate evolution and prediction, and reshaping the coastline.